


Just One Night

by kitausuret



Series: Flash Thompson is Not Allowed to Die [3]
Category: Marvel 616, Spider-Man (Comicverse), Venom (Comics)
Genre: ASM #800 fix, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Communication, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Hanging Out, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Pre-Relationship, Symbruary, Trauma, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29235285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausuret/pseuds/kitausuret
Summary: After the events ofThe Amazing Spider-Man#800, Flash Thompson has survived his injuries, bid the anti-venom suit farewell, and after an emotional conversation with Eddie Brock, finally gotten to go home. But now that the whirlwind has mostly passed, he has an opportunity to think on what has transpired... and he's not the only one with a lot to unpack about the past few years.(Symbruary days 5-6: hurt/heal)
Relationships: Developing Eddie Brock/Flash Thompson/Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock & Flash Thompson, Flash Thompson/Venom Symbiote
Series: Flash Thompson is Not Allowed to Die [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2146731
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13
Collections: SYMBRUARY





	Just One Night

**Author's Note:**

> Technically this is a sequel to [Hearts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383617), which I wrote a few years back. This story stands on its own pretty all right, but a lot of this story is dependent on what happened in the previous work. Therefore, I've listed it as the third in a series of post-#800 fics.
> 
> I've wanted to write more in this kind of fix-it timeline, so I finally did!

Flash would have been lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the lift back home to his apartment. Well, he would’ve preferred to have been clothed for it, but having a symbiotic blanket over his shoulders and pressed into Venom’s warm body wasn’t the _worst_ thing he’d experienced today. Not even top ten worst. Maybe top ten best. Maybe top _five_. 

He felt vulnerable like this, but it wasn’t such a bad thing. He’d gone straight from using up all the anti-venom suit to almost dying, to having his old partner come to his rescue. He felt a little less alive as Agent Anti-Venom, and a little _more_ as Agent Venom. Or maybe he’d just been Flash Thompson, hanging out with his pal for a few minutes. 

Best few minutes of the last, what, year? 

Of course, there had been that kiss…

He smothered the thought and focused on making sure they were going the right way to his apartment. Eddie certainly wasn’t saying anything to make this weird. It was just an impulsive gesture, nothing to it. 

Nothing at all.

\-----

Eddie at least had the courtesy to not make it weird when they had to first locate Flash’s wheelchair - his legs had been completely wrecked in the fight. Flash had convinced Eddie to stay for a bit. They had pad thai and massaman curry delivered and each washed up after the absolute _nightmare_ of a day they’d had. They moved mostly in silence around each other. The symbiote didn’t show much of itself, either, except when they were both on the couch and it wrapped a tendril around Flash’s index finger. He was sure Eddie felt it - pretty hard to keep even a small gesture from your direct host - and grateful he didn’t protest. 

Some old movie none of them were paying attention to played on a low volume in the living room. When Eddie broke the quiet, it was in a voice far lower than Flash was certain he’d ever heard from the man. 

“We’re… _I’m_ glad you made it.” 

He opened his mouth to respond, but the appendage around his finger tightened a little. Instead, Flash just raised his eyebrows and watched Eddie stare straight at the floor. 

“There was a moment, a few months ago, when everything went down against Lee Price, we all thought you were dead. I felt this…” He clenched his fists in front of him. “... _blinding_ _rage_ , I suppose. You were fine, of course, which I should have known, having been an Anti-Venom myself once. But it was surprising. At first I assumed it was only my other, its memories of you leaking through, but it wasn’t. And I meant what I said that night.”

 _You’re a pretty good man, yourself._ Flash smiled despite himself at the memory. For all the hell that had been those few days, that had been a pretty decent moment. 

“You know,” Flash said, and scratched the back of his head with a grimace, “we’ve had this really weird thing since we met, haven’t we? You started out as Anti-Venom, and I was Venom, and then we were Toxin and Venom, and finally we were Venom and Anti-Venom, but for a few minutes now and then, we were just Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. The only real common denominator has been Venom.” He turned to face Eddie and leaned up against the back of the couch as casually as he could. “I showed up at Our Lady of Saints and tried to tranq you-”

“No, you showed up with a…” Eddie finally faced him. “Hold on, that was a _tranquilizer?_ It looked like a-”

“-a gun, yeah, that’s what I told Dodge, but… Whatever, point is, we battled out of there, but we ended up wanting the same thing: saving Manhattan. And then there was Philadelphia, when we almost killed each other, but we wanted the same thing: stopping the slayers. And then with Price, we both just wanted him gone, but we never just talked. We just kept hurting each other. Do you know how _stupid_ that seems in hindsight?”

“Thompson,” he said after a long pause, “if you want to discuss hindsight, we are going to be here for weeks.” 

“...well, how about just one night?” Flash held up his hand to show Eddie the symbiote still wrapped around his index finger. He smiled in a way he hoped translated to “what can you do?” 

Eddie immediately started to get up. “I should… thank you for the Thai food, but I can’t… we should just…”

“ _Eddie_ , just _one night_ , okay? If you don’t stay, Pete will find out, and then he’ll insist on coming over, and then I won’t be able to sleep, because he will watch me sleep _all night_ , and knowing he’s done that as both Spider-Man and as Peter Parker makes it all worse.” He shrugged a little awkwardly. “And, I’ll be honest, I don’t… really want to be alone after tonight.” 

He watched the resolve in Eddie’s blue eyes break down bit by bit, no doubt thanks to his partner. “...fine. One night.” 

\-----

It was probably the exhaustion talking, but Eddie didn’t voice any more protests even as they both collapsed into bed together. The symbiote spread itself out in a way that spoke to habit, but tonight, it formed a hand that held Flash’s (while of course being otherwise completely wrapped around Eddie). Flash held it close to his chest with a sigh. Just this little gesture, more than any notion of being a hero or an Agent of the Cosmos or anything… _this_ was what he missed. Just the casual gestures. The affection. 

It made little eyes in the dark that peered up at him, and he smiled. “Hey, pal,” he whispered, trusting that it would let Eddie sleep. “I missed you, you know?” The symbiote made a rumbling noise, almost like a purr. 

That had been the hardest part of donning the anti-venom suit. He could heal himself, he could heal others, he could save half a dozen people from a megalomaniacal supervillain, but what was all of that if he couldn’t even embrace the one being in this universe that felt like it had a part of his soul? In what reality did it make sense for him to call himself _anti-_ Venom? How could he ever _be_ “anti” to Venom? 

He’d tried so hard to fill the void with his newfound range of abilities, but it wasn’t the powers at all. It never had been. It had always just been Venom.

Eddie, he suspected, had realized that right away, all those years ago. But along the way, something had happened, something got _broken_ , and now they needed to fix it. He got that. Sometimes it took a traumatic event to punch you in the face and make you realize something needed to change. 

With the symbiote still wrapped around it, he placed his hand gently on Eddie’s bicep. Just as he was about to pull it off, Eddie reached around and placed his hand over Flash’s. 

“Eddie?”

“Hmm.” 

“Thanks. And… I’m glad you’re okay, too.”

He didn’t say anything back, but he didn’t need to. The way he squeezed Flash’s hand - and the symbiote’s - told him everything he needed to know.


End file.
